S9 Reviews

[gorgi]

Theres a german cnet review for the S9 that gave him excellent grades^^
They gave him 9 out ouf 10 overall.
Also compared it with the iTouch and they were unhappy about the missing multi-touch [no]
I dont think they know that Apple has a patent on it.

[travelbore]

Hi,

saw this review in the Scotsman this weekend: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotsmanmagazine/It-plays-to-its-strengths.4663542.jp

For those of you unfortunate enough ;) to live outside of Scotland, The Scotsman is one the top 2 national newspapers.

The review is brief but quite informative.

Best,
TB

[Insta]

Dude, THANK YOU!!! [thumbsup]
Great find!
Although the article doesn't go in-depth it does affirm that the sq is still great, so that's one question off the list, I guess. :)

[bernado]

You got me all excited there for a moment. Bah, still no review

[DaremoS]

Hi,

saw this review in the Scotsman this weekend: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotsmanmagazine/It-plays-to-its-strengths.4663542.jp

For those of you unfortunate enough ;) to live outside of Scotland, The Scotsman is one the top 2 national newspapers.

The review is brief but quite informative.

Best,
TB

here is something really surprising in the review:
... The Cowon S9 is one of the best-sounding MP3 players I have listened to. Where you did that lucky Josh Welensky ??

MP3 players are a bit like cars; there are a lot of them, essentially all doing the same job. The question is whether you'd rather drive a Ford Focus or a Ferrari?. Cowon is more like the latter.I do the same comparison in other post... but I use Porsche vs Volkswagen.

[Bullseye]

I'd say Rolls Royce Vs Renault

[auxiliary]

Actually, I'd say Honda (with all the brilliance, refinement and gadgetry) as Cowon

Vs. Alfa Romeo (with all the atrocious build quality, but sexiness and emptiness) as Some other manufacturers...cough...Apple, etc.

[Jessipoo]

oo that was a bit exciting, I guess t means he played with it? no fair. I want to fondle that little piece of marvel :p

already the fact that it auto rotates makes it more interactive in terms of user experience and the relation between technology and user, so that already excitesme quite a bit. Still not a fan of touch screen but at this day in age.. tactile is passé, I'll learn to live with it until they release more tactile touchscreens in a few years.

[OnYourMark]

already the fact that it auto rotates makes it more interactive in terms of user experience and the relation between technology and user, so that already excitesme quite a bit. Still not a fan of touch screen but at this day in age.. tactile is passé, I'll learn to live with it until they release more tactile touchscreens in a few years.

Oh my . . . reminds me of this retarded player I saw on YouTube. You have to shake it to control it. They'd have to pay me to get that player.

But the S9 should be much better of course.

I'm really baffled by the review. What does it mean concerning the current stage of the S9's development? =O
I personally find it strange that someone reviewed the S9 for a Scottish newspaper. Especially considering the rumors that the player isn't finished yet. Or...what does this article say about those rumors? lol.

[omjeremy]

lol This is not a review. If you read it carefully, the writer doesn't mention once that he's actually tried the device. He's just telling us what how he expects it to be considering the specs of the device.

nonsense...

[OnYourMark]

Well, he specifically states that he's listened to it: "The Cowon S9 is one of the best-sounding MP3 players I have listened to."
It could be a white lie though.

I agree that it's not a review. I could have written that article using everything I've read about the S9.

[Agca]

http://www.t3.com/reviews/ipod-and-mp3-players/all-mp3-players/t3-exclusive-cowon-s9-mp3-player-review

[Juxtah]

This a mini review of the S9, I have also posted it on the Anything but iPod forums and will try to keep both updated:

(http://img254.imageshack.us/my.php?image=31381964ya4.jpg)
[img=http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/7803/99004275gw3.th.jpg] (http://img258.imageshack.us/my.php?image=99004275gw3.jpg)

Accessories/Extras: Nothing special here, you get a small minidisc with Cowon's Jetaudio on it, the disc works with tray drives but will not work with any slot loading drives. You also get a pair of headphones which are nothing special, a couple of guides in various languages and the proprietary USB cable.

All that's missing really for me is the plug wall charger, as one was included with the D2 I was expecting the S9 to come with one.

Design: As all of you will already will be well aware of the looks of the S9 I'll simply talk about build quality. A lot of reviewers have said it is very light and feels rather hollow or plastic, which is true. If you were expecting something along the lines of the D2 you will be dissapointed, however I must stress that it's not badly built, in fact it's probably still several levels above that of other manufacturers it's just not up to Cowon's usual 'tank'esque quality.

[img=http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/4240/57716821ev6.th.jpg] (http://img374.imageshack.us/my.php?image=57716821ev6.jpg)
[img=http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/5773/16252815nf4.th.jpg] (http://img396.imageshack.us/my.php?image=16252815nf4.jpg)
(The Cowon has 2 'theme' choices, I find myself prefering the former but it's nice to have the choice)

UI: Cowon has made leaps and bounds in this department, the UI is much simpler to navigate and doing so is very quick with menus popping up quickly and scrolling through files in a breeze. However if you were expecting something that you could pick up and learn in and out within 10 minutes you will be dissapointed, this is much better then what we usually see from Cowon but some menu's can still be quite difficult to fathom without the 'press and see what it does' approach.

[img=http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/9020/25980843tr5.th.jpg] (http://img401.imageshack.us/my.php?image=25980843tr5.jpg)

I've found the accelerometer to be very good at picking up when the player is turned on it's side (although Enzoten has had the opposite experience, whether this is firmware/hardware based is unknown). The UI is very smooth in almost all areas, however coverflow is one notable exception, using it is so laggy with long pauses and it does make you think about asking why Cowon bothered with it in the first place. Hopefully this is just a firmware issue though that can be remedied, however even if it was smooth the portrait music screen is much more useful in every way.

Other UI features such as the zooming work quite well, although unless you are short sighted there should be no problems reading the text even at the lowest magnification as the screen is really that sharp.

Audio quality: I'm not great at discerning between small differences in sound, however you can be certain that the S9 matches (perhaps even exceeds in some areas) the D2. Through the same headphones both players sound just as good and there are largely the same customisation options in the S9 as in the D2

Video quality: Wow... this is where this player really excels. With a decent input source the player looks fantastic, using a good conversion tool (such as handbrake) it looks absolutely stunning. I've found the S9 can play a lot of different resolutions including those above the 480x272 quoted, however it does a bad job at fixing the aspect ratio and an even wrose one at scaling it down, so to get the most you really do need to convert your video, although again if you can't stand to convert (like I know many people do) you can still watch most sources.

Other Features:
FM Radio - nice to have, but it doesn't scan particularly well and it sets up stations just several Mhz from their source which leads to a lot of manual changing if you want to get the most out of this feature.
Bluetooth - Can't really comment as I don't have a bluetooth headset to pair it too, although the option for switching it on is easy to find and quick to do.
Flash games - I've tried a few flash games for the Cowon D2 and found they do work, however some of the buttons aren't finger friendly and some cause intermittent crashing. List of games I've tried:

[I]Blackjack - Works without crashing, not finger friendly.
Fishtales - Works and finger friendly but causes crashes at random intervals
Flashpad v3 - Works, relatively finger friendly and the saving option still works
qubik - Works, relatively finger friendly but still has some of the stuttering issues that the D2 version had
Gridlock - Works, kind of finger friendly (though quite difficult to move blocks first time), no crashing issues I'm aware of
Laser - Doesn't work, gets stuck at loading (left for 5 minutes, so may work but probably not useful to have a game taking 5 minutes+ to load)
Samarosti - Seems to work at first but gets stuck after intro sequence and screen goes black. However it isn't a crash as it's still possible to quit so not sure what's going on with this.
Worm beta - Works very well, no noticable lag, and the black borders of the screen (as the game is not widescreen) also count as clicks so your finger doesn't get in the way of seeing where you need to go.

I may try some others later.

I haven't really had the player long enough to judge things like battery life in real life situations but just judging by the battery meter Cowon's predictions of 55/11 seem just a bit over the top, but might be attainable depending on usage/BBE settings/Screen brightness/etc.

BBC iPlayer - BBC recently released the option to download programs for portable devices, dragging and dropping the files in MSC mode doesn't work outright. But in MTP it seems to get half way there before giving you errors - so may work if it's synced properly with WMP or something.

[TheDarkSide]

Here's the preview question/answer thread on ABI: http://anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37659

[Chester Copperpot]

I figured the flash support would be no better than the D2, especially after seeing how laggy the coverflow appears from videos posted online. Oh well, no big deal.

Would be cool if you could run flash apps that loaded pictures from a folder path or played sound files.

[Agca]

Short review:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f15/cowon-s9-review-393309/

[Dazza]

Ahem ;)

Oops lol sorry, im huxley on head-fi i did that review as many on the net are heavily ipod biased so they find every little fault then can, for once i wanted an unbiased review hence my attempt.

You will find there's a youtube link with me showing it off, i struggled with the menu because of the camera being sat in front of me.

[yumms]

ABI review http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2008/12/cowon-iaudio-s9-review.php

[Agca]

See here in HQ:
youtube.com/watch?v=QWPCvzk_Lhw&eurl&fmt=18

or here:
YouTube - AMP3 TV - Cowon S9 Review

thx to Uphaillife

[NIN2theVoid]

Now this is a review!
But you probably already seen this one.
http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shop/MP3_Players.1/Cowon_iAudio.15/S9-16GB/Cowon_iAudio_S9_16GB_MP3_Player.3580.html

[bwonedotcom]

Here is Part 1 of my review. Going over accessories, hardware tour, specs and comparison. Final part of the review to be up later on. So far I am really enjoying this device. I'm a former D2 owner and this is definitely the perfect upgrade from it.

http://www.bwone.com/2008/12/27/cowon-s9-review-part-1/

YouTube - Cowon S9 Review Part 1 - BWOne.com

This will be the dedicated page to the Cowon S9 on my site. http://www.bwone.com/cowon-s9/
High Quality version available directly on youtube page

[Uphaillife]

:) good review :D. i wonder if anyone is using a windows 98..

[OnYourMark]

It feels like I'm using Windows 98. For the past week I've had to boot my computer in safe mode, 16 colors, and low resolution. Hopefully something will change soon. Right now I'm actually not in safe mode, but I'm on the guest profile.

That was a nice review bwonedotcom. I'm looking forward to the next part.

[Belabor]

Trusted Reviews - Cowon S9.
I've always liked their reviews, and they are very honest about all the pro's and con's. Worth a read.

Link: http://www.trustedreviews.com/mp3/review/2008/12/28/Cowon-iAudio-S9/p1

[Nadescap]

This is my review: http://www.reproductormp3.net/reviews-de-foreros/cowon-o2/msg52580/#new
(http://www.reproductormp3.net/reviews-de-foreros/cowon-o2/msg52580/#new)
Is written in Spanish

Edit: Please delete this post

[rcr0412]

nadescap wrong player :)

[omjeremy]

Engadget reviews the S9

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/29/cowon-s9-review/

[rcr0412]

im looking forward to the cnet review

[nerjo]

dude no offense but cnet blows. they have a high degree of bias toward apple products and they suck at focusing on the important points. i guess its clear that im bitter towards them haha

[bwonedotcom]

I have personally found that CNet is good for its Videos but beyond that the reviews tend not to be up to part as some other sites are that are half their size and budget.

[tabv]

Engadget reviews the S9

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/29/cowon-s9-review/


Thanks omjeremy, nice review.....can't wait till the 32gb comes out...I want to see this so called "cheaply made" with my own eyes.

What I can't figure out is why just because it's light weight that makes it cheaply made???

[Uphaillife]

What I can't figure out is why just because it's light weight that makes it cheaply made???

because it's not heavier than the ipod. duh. :)

but at $199.99 and $239.99 for the 8GB and 16GB versions, respectively, we simply expected more. If these fall by $70 or so in the short term, they'll certainly become quite the bargain,

amoled screen is 10x more expensive than LCD right now (it should be cheaper though in the near future). be glad its cheaper than the itouch. -_-.

[Insta]

LOL [rofl]

[XXL-Music]

What I can't figure out is why just because it's light weight that makes it cheaply made???

Because it feels like there's nothing in it + the titanium looks plastic-y. I can understand that view.

[MeTaXo]

lol
if you talk like that youve obviously never held a cowon productin your hand !!!!!![excited]
its like saying a good car needs to be heavy.... [help]
no wonder american cars are built like tanks if the logic behind it is ..... heavy`s better man ....... DUH [unsure]:P:P:P

[XXL-Music]

its like saying a good car needs to be heavy.... [help]
no wonder american cars are built like tanks if the logic behind it is ..... heavy`s better man ....... DUH [unsure]:P:P:P

It's not the same, you don't hold a car in your hands. It's mostly because 'real' products weigh significantly more than a knock-off and you can usually tell a knock off by the weight of the product. And knock offs are cheap, that's the association. And the S9 is really light.

[shadowfox952]

I think it has more to do with the cheap plastic feel rather than the light weight. While i'm sure the build quality is quite good, using a more polished plastic would probably be more appealing, but that's what I'm expecting from the chrome version when it is released.

edit: I agree with XXL, the fact that it's an asian product with such light weight and no outer metal will lead people to think "cheap" and "knockoff"

If it was apple who made it, people would be swarming over it simply because it's american (that, and the advertising)

[tabv]

Well when I get mine when the 32gb comes out I'll let you all know if I think it is cheaply made..like the review says..[laugh]

[mac404]

With a place like Engadget, you can't win. If it's lighter than the iPod Touch, it feels cheap. If it's heavier, it's not as portable. If it weighs the same, it has no benefit over the iPod Touch.

It seems they missed some rather obvious things (like that the accelerometer doesn't work when you don't hold it vertically and being able to go back to the menu by holding down the play/pause button), which shows me they didn't go in with the right mindset or try to learn enough to actually output a decent review.

[Insta]

well i just found it kind of funny that he didn't even realize he wasn't reviewing the chrome version xD

[ilh]

You can tell from the video he's barely used it. He seems to be hung up on the UI a lot but I don't think he knows enough about it:

- He thinks you can hold down the album art to get track info and hold down a track in the menu to get it to play - holding down does nothing, it's the lifting of the finger.
- I don't get why he fails to recognise the reason for double tapping is because there's things you can do with the highlighted item using the buttons at the bottom. Notice you can single tap on the home menu as there's no options (although he is justified when talking about the photo viewer).
- There is a hardware "home" button.
- He wonders why there's so much lag (while I don't argue there is lag, just not as much as he makes out) when he tries to get it to reorientate itself using the g-sensor while he's holding it flat.
- He fails to mention some of the fairly unique UI elements such as customisable parts of the interface, the quicklist and the on the fly menu zooming (which he could probably have done with as he was on the 3rd smallest level judging from the menu at 3:40).

I do agree that the UI isn't perfect and there's a few mini-menu icons that aren't intuitive but I don't find the general navigation confusing at all. Most of the hole's he's poking aren't really there.

As for the rest of the review, he's implies there's no "extravagant" extras, but fails to mention of some of the other extras such as the flash player (if extravagant means Wifi to him then no thanks).

They praise iPods for being thin and light, but when something comes along that's lighter it's cheap, love it. Complaining about lack of shiny metal too...my S9 doesn't have any scratches and feels durable and I foresee that lasting a long time but I doubt a Touch would've lasted this long without getting any scratches.

[tabv]

Very nice write up about the review ilh....;)

[doomlordis]

Best review i have read so far

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/12/24/review_pmp_cowon_s9/

[gorgi]

I don't know why people argue about the weight of the S9. It's made of plastic, the D2 was too. And I dropped it from 2metres height and nothing happened.
We won't know how stable the S9 is until somebody dropped it.
I really think its more stable than most people think.

[silvos3189]

Best review i have read so far

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/12/24/review_pmp_cowon_s9/

this review states that the s9 is a resistive screen and it can be used with gloves on... but I had previously heard that it was a capacitive screen and only reacts to uh... skin.
kinda confused which is which and could anyone clarify what can be used with the screen for me?

[OnYourMark]

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/12/24/review_pmp_cowon_s9/

Why are the pictures edited? It makes the S9 screen look bigger than it is >.<
And S9 has a capacitive screen, which is the same as the iPod Touch.

[DaremoS]

Concerning gloves it must be used those designed for chiropractic purposes: physician rubber gloves.

[silvos3189]

interesting... physician rubber gloves O_O
never... considered that...
well bound to keep you warmer than if you didn't wear gloves at least xD

[OnYourMark]

I would've thought that gloves were more useful on a capacitive screen than a resistive screen... The gloves would make your finger even less recognizable to a resistive screen, right? but gloves supposedly can't be used for capacitive screens...
Can you use gloves on any type of touch screen?

By gloves, I mean... fuzzy cotton (or polyester or whatever) gloves, or leather gloves.

[Insta]

Hmm, I'd imagine that it'd be the other way around..
I think physicians gloves are made of rubber (afaik), which is an electrical insulator and doesn't conduct which makes it useless for a capacitive screen.

Fuzzy gloves, however do conduct electricity and as such, should work just fine (or atleast a little bit lol) on a capacitive screen.. [confused]

[sodoecho]

PMP today have the cowon s9 as PMP of the year.... here (http://www.pmptoday.com/2008/12/31/pmp-of-the-year-goes-to/).

[yumms]

dapreview.net review http://www.dapreview.net/p/content/content.php?content.348

[Affainyi]

PMP today have the cowon s9 as PMP of the year.... here (http://www.pmptoday.com/2008/12/31/pmp-of-the-year-goes-to/).
PMP of 2009...I guess that makes sense....good they waited till the year ended till they awarded the prize....I wonder what the pmp of 2009 will be? SOny's new player? the P3? or some as yet unreleased device?

[omjeremy]

They're calling it the PMP of 2008.

[da1writer]

I wonder when CNET is going to put out a review, they sure did put a review out day after the iCrap came out but still no review for the S9? Something smells fishy, I smell apples money...

[rcr0412]

Laptop Magazine Review

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/mp3/cowon-s9-8gb.aspx

from reading the review it seemed like 3.5 out of 5 was low

[tabv]

Laptop Magazine Review

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/mp3/cowon-s9-8gb.aspx

from reading the review it seemed like 3.5 out of 5 was low

lol..yeah really...he seemed like he really liked it a lot more then some reviewers but only gave it a 3.5...[confused]...Well it's not as awesome as the touch..lol...and he likes the glass and the steel of the touch...he probably owns one..lol.

[Bullseye]

Hey again.

Well i found a S9 review @ gizmodo. Don't expect kind words towards it, it has been reviewed by an ipod danboy. It seems that the guy who reviewed it doesn't know what sound quality is...

REVIEW (http://i.gizmodo.com/5134111/cowon-s9-curve-review)

...

[Uphaillife]

frankly, no ipod fan boys know what sound quality is. if they think they do, they hail it as top notch. maybe its not that bad to a lot of people, but bleh i cant distinguish different sounds.

[tabv]

Hey again.

Well i found a S9 review @ gizmodo. Don't expect kind words towards it, it has been reviewed by an ipod danboy. It seems that the guy who reviewed it doesn't know what sound quality is...

REVIEW (http://i.gizmodo.com/5134111/cowon-s9-curve-review)

...

That guys a real riot...lol...

I've come to the conclusion that when people like him say bad things about a Cowon it is because they are "Jealous" of Cowons awesomeness. Honestly I totally believe that. And I just know some of that jealousy would fade if ipods would all of a sudden be able to use drag and drop and weren't restricted to using software. And were capable of playing many more formats.


Anyway I didn't even read the whole review...I read the first 2 paragraphs and stopped.

[ilh]

The review was a month in the making? hahaha. Wow, yet another review full of misinformation and missing information.

Anyway I didn't even read the whole review...I read the first 2 paragraphs and stopped.
The review was that weak that there wasn't much more than 2 paragraphs anyway.

[mac404]

When asked to compare sound quality versus an ipod, he replied in the comments section: "There's no discernible difference to my ears. Remember, we're talking about compressed music here."

Sigh...

[Uphaillife]

Cnet Asia: 8.8 out of 10 i say not bad.
http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/musicplay/0,39050463,44412941p,00.htm
although i dont agree with some things they say, it seems fair enough to me :P.

Cnet Germany: 8.9 out of 10
wow germany

this is by far the highest ranked mp3 player besides the itouch on cnet. haha jeez.

[blackriders]

Cnet Asia: 8.8 out of 10 i say not bad.
http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/musicplay/0,39050463,44412941p,00.htm
although i dont agree with some things they say, it seems fair enough to me :P.

Cnet Germany: 8.9 out of 10
wow germany

this is by far the highest ranked mp3 player besides the itouch on cnet. haha jeez.

The itouch is always going to be higher ranked no matter what happens.

[da1writer]

Well CNET (USA) has FINALLY put out their S9 review.
http://reviews.cnet.com/portable-video-players-pvps/cowon-s9-8gb/4505-6499_7-33450411.html?tag=mncol;lst

Kinda infuriated over what I read though about... the editors review (not the player).

"Not only does the S9 use a lightening-fast capacitive touch interface (comparable to the iphones), but its 3.3-inch screen is made from OLED instead of conventional LCD.The S9's screen isn't as large as the 3.5-inch screen on the iPod Touch, but it comes very close and is noticeably more substantial than the screen on the Samsung P2."
Oh really, I guesss you forgot it was a AMOLED screen (not OLED you @$$) and looks 100x better than anything the Icrap can pop out or Samsung. AMOLED technology is years ahead of LCD, no MP3 or PMP looks any better than the S9's screen period!

At least they got this right:
"We can say without hesitation that the Cowon S9 sounds better than any iPod we've heard and its sound-enhancement technology is far more nuanced than the Creative Zen X-FI or Sony Walkman series."
No duh, it's a Cowon for Pete's sake, awesome sound no matter what, always better than the Icrap.

But then the CNET editor turns around and slaps that compliment in the face with:
"In spite of the Cowon S9's strengths, we still recommend the iPod Touch for the majority of users, because of its superior construction, intuitive user interface, and breadth of features."
Wow. Really? I'm reading this review because I'm interested in the S9 and want to know what you guys think yet you slap at the end that the Icrap is better? Of course it's better to you Icrap Fanboys. Unlike the CNET editors, We know better devices and Cowon's devices (moreso the S9) are it.
(Those editors probably can't tell the difference between paste and frosting even if you told them).

I'm not saying the review sucks either, I merely meant it's not the best review I've read out of CNET or the S9 (didn't mean to pick out the negatives in the review, they just stood out for me). I'm still going to buy the S9 regardless of the review. Cowon FTW [thumbsup]!
Of course alot of the review is positive but most of it is negative and biased towards the S9, I've read better reviews on other websites (like anythingbutipod or the other global CNET sites) of the S9 anyway to allow me to finalize in wanting the S9

[Uphaillife]

lol. that pisses me off. at least asia and germany had good reviews. :D i dont look at america's, dumbest thing you can do.

[Affainyi]

tsk tsk tsk......you are picking out only their biased comments. I agree that they are heavily influenced towards the touch but as a liberal minded consumer you have to admit that they do a good job of praising the S9 and recommending it, especially at the end. Not to mention not one of the things they say is incorrect. Even about the OLED, AMOLED is an advanced version of OLED, it's like saying a device has a touchscreen without saying whether it is resistive or capacitative, not very accurate but they are all touchscreens.......


You have to remember that the average consumer is not alwaays technophile and may need to be educated sufficiently about a device before buying it, that is why they mention that the sound quality is good, one cannot expect everyone to know that cowon's have the best sound quality.....and most people are reading this review not just to 'know more about the S9" but rather to know more in terms of choosing it over another device.

Just my opinion but I think the review is very insightful and clearly points out that the S9 is a solid and viable product 'a certain sort of consumer' should be interested in....which is the absolute truth......

[OnYourMark]

From the cnet review of the Cowon S9:
[...]we still recommend the iPod Touch for the majority of users, because of its superior construction, intuitive user interface, and breadth of features.
I like how the reviewer managed to turn the ending note into an advertisement for iPod.
There's something wrong with that.

Anyway... I suppose slants in reviews are to be expected.
And the monopoly snowballs.

[tabv]

"The bottom line: The Cowon S9 is a sexy-looking gadget with exceptional audio and video quality, but its construction quality and user interface pale in comparison to the competition."

The bolded part is the part that gets me???

You guys that own the S9 is it really built that poorly that he would say it pales in comparison to the competition?? I mean by saying it the way he said it seems to tell me it's more than just bias?? I mean it's one thing to say it's contruction quality isn't up to par with the competition, but it's another when one says "but it's contruction quality "pales" in comparison to the competition".

Those who have an S9 what do you think?

[Uphaillife]

i love what the S9 is made of. dunno exactly what but i love the feel of it
UI is... to a point not favorable to most people. i dont really find it annoying. i find it pretty simple...

[Affainyi]

hmmmm, I find that some people are prepared to do a little work to make their player truly amazing, but others are way too interested in nit-picking to appreciate it.

For example the S9 UI. Some people will play around with it and attempt to master it while others will use it for a few days and if they are unable to instantly able to do everything, proceed to totally write it off, i believe the word is unintuitive? Which is flabbergasting cos everything on this earth has a learning curve. Fact is, the steeper the learning curve, often the more freedom and control an interface provides......unfortunately not everyone sees it this way.

[ilh]

Seriously, these people are beginning to piss me off and it's not because I own an S9. The build quality is top notch and light != cheap. They all praised the iPod for being lighter than the rest back in the day, now that the Touch feels like a brick it's better to be heavy.
What's wrong with the UI? There's a couple of icons that are obscure as to what they mean and the coverflow is laggy...that's it, and those obscure icons aren't actually used a lot anyway. I mean ffs, they're saying the flip bar makes the interface messy and give us too many options? Get a grip, what would they say if all the icons were displayed at once? Heck of a lot easier to use the flip bar than going through a load of menues too.
But what really gets my tree is that EVERY review that's had a go at the UI has mentioned nothing about UCI.

[rcr0412]

i think the build quality is good, but after a week or so testing it, it does feel too light, it feels hollow. i prefer the way the sansa fuze and sony a729 feel in my hand compared to it. the sound quality is amazing though

[gorgi]

"The bottom line: The Cowon S9 is a sexy-looking gadget with exceptional audio and video quality, but its construction quality and user interface pale in comparison to the competition."

The bolded part is the part that gets me???

You guys that own the S9 is it really built that poorly that he would say it pales in comparison to the competition?? I mean by saying it the way he said it seems to tell me it's more than just bias?? I mean it's one thing to say it's contruction quality isn't up to par with the competition, but it's another when one says "but it's contruction quality "pales" in comparison to the competition".

Those who have an S9 what do you think?
Its made of plastic and its very light, but it's not of porr construction quality. I would even dare to call it "handbuilt" because everything is perfectly in shape and to me its seems to be very stable.
The only "problem" I have with it is the volume button. Its a bit shaky, I think I will contact Cowon Support to fix it, but thats realy a minor problem as it still works totally.

[XXL-Music]

Funny how only non-iPods get 'no memory expansion' and 'non-standard usb port' as 'the bad'. That doesn't matter when you've got an iPod apparently

[da1writer]

Wow, CNET updated it's review with a video review and holy crap, wow. Just like the written review, let's bomb the S9 with a ipod advertisement near the end, I'm sure no one is going to want the S9 now.
Yeah, If I was the stupid follow-me Ipod sheep that Apple herds, I'd settle for mediocre crap. Good thing I'm not part of that dumb crowd and decided to be different and go for better quality, Cowon.

[ilh]

Not to mention they usually add a con of lack of FM radio for those that don't have it...different story for iPods.

[tabv]

Wow, CNET updated it's review with a video review and holy crap, wow. Just like the written review, let's bomb the S9 with a ipod advertisement near the end, I'm sure no one is going to want the S9 now.
Yeah, If I was the stupid follow-me Ipod sheep that Apple herds, I'd settle for mediocre crap. Good thing I'm not part of that dumb crowd and decided to be different and go for better quality, Cowon.


lol...yeah I just watched it...it's really funny how they always compare it to the touch....I mean can't the S9 just be a bigger screen D2 which was out before the touch was out.

Then of course at the end they held the touch up next to it...

[ilh]

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12519_7-10147611-49.html

Podcast talking about the S9. More complaining about it being light, sigh.
Even go as far as to critique the flash player because there's no quality control in applications -_-
And I seriously cannot believe they're having a go at the tactile buttons for being "not needed" apart from the volume.

[gorgi]

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12519_7-10147611-49.html

Podcast talking about the S9. More complaining about it being light, sigh.
Even go as far as to critique the flash player because there's no quality control in applications -_-
And I seriously cannot believe they're having a go at the tactile buttons for being "not needed" apart from the volume.

"In a psycholigical way this thing feels pretty cheap because of its weight, I mean ahhhh...."
"I nearly ripped of the play button because I thought it was kind of a stylus and now its kind a loose, something that shouldn't happen with a 200dollar device" THEN GET YOUR F*CKING FINGERS OFF OF IT AND USE YOUR BRAIN! What the hell, that guy seems to be an idiot
"I rated it 7 out of 10, because the no quality contrtol in flash games. I mean I threw some games from the D2 on it oh no it was the Q5W and they didnt work because the display was too big, thats very bad" Shut up! These are two different devices or do Itouch games work on the Ipod Nano?

Cnet is pure shit, I think they get money from Apple. Why do they think the S9 is bad because theres no expansion-slot for sd-cards but the Ipod Touch is simply amazing although it neither has an expansion-slot.
Let a 4th grader compare those devices and he will know more about it than the guys from Cnet. Even a baby wouldn't think the play button was a stylus. A stlyus on a capacitive touchscreen???

[EddieE]

I am beyond a sense of humour regarding the "light = bad in a portable device" thing.

Are the reviewers on some group crack binge or something?

In terms of weight, the holy grail for a portable device should be that it is a light as it can possibly be. Because it's portable, see, and therefore should be as unnoticable as possible as you go about your day.

But then the i pod touch comes out weighing fractionally less than a brick and suddenly the sure sign of quality in a portable device is it's heavy; the heavier the better. Soon portable players will loose marks in a cnut review if they don't need a roof rack and a morris minor to carry them around.

[scaryshark]

The cnet review is just a waste of time to be honest. They spent more time talking about the itouch than the s9.
They didnt include how the s9 has a Radio, microphone and you can change its ui to make it just like you like. And saying it is a lot like the itouch in layout, i mean come on what do they want 1 icon to every page - no you want some thing thats straight infront of you. And how they say it's cheap - just should up because phones have become a lot more portable by becoming smaller and lighter so have mp3 players - so why is it so bad when something becomes light. (BECAUSE THE ITOUCH IS HEAVY OBVIOUSLY)

[tabv]

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12519_7-10147611-49.html

Podcast talking about the S9. More complaining about it being light, sigh.
Even go as far as to critique the flash player because there's no quality control in applications -_-
And I seriously cannot believe they're having a go at the tactile buttons for being "not needed" apart from the volume.

Those 2 people...just to hear how they talk about the S9 is just sickening hearing it...you can clearly hear the bias when they speak about the S9...Honestly it's like they're Jealous of the S9 because it trashes the touch.

[kasrhp]

heres the thing, you guys are all talking about a website(cnet), who has special all day blogs for when Steve Jobs gets up to use the restroom. They really have a minute by minute update for any of Apples press releases that they plaster on the fron page of the site. So to say Cnet is for Apple is the biggest understatement of the century. They do a nice job with tips and tricks, info, and some reviews. They just arent any different than anybody else.

Tip your hats to Apple for doing such a great advertising job that whatever they make, say, or do, nobody really, i mean really critiques. The iphone is not the best, but its the coolest. The itouch, classic, nano, shuffle etc. Cnet just drinks the kool aid, says "thank you sir may i have another." Heck you cant even log on to their site half the time without going through a stupid full screen ad anymore. (ad block plus helps though:P).

So how about just like everything else you do when you dont like something, dont do it. Dont go to the website. Dont advertise it. Just treat it like it does not exist.

[SawaFish]

I totally agree with Kasrhp. And look on the bright side; we're complaining about how the reviews don't do the S9 justice, while with the O2 we were complaining the O2 didn't give us value for our money. Obviously the S9 is a great music-/video-player with some very nice extras, most people just want an handy, trendy iPod touch though. So it's not that strange the S9 is compared to one of the more popular devices, though the bias is a bit too much sometimes.

[Kizune]

I don't ignore Cnet, at last they publish wrong information. That's something that makes me sick of Cnet.

Everything is shit but iPod.
A pmp is lighter than the iTouch? It's cheap!
A pmp has more functions than it? The functions of that pmp aren't needed and useless!
The UI is similar to the iTouch's one? Then it's copied!

Cnet criticizes everything that is (nearly) better than any iPod. They compare pmps with the iTouch and only list what is worse.

That's the reason why I CAN'T ignore Cnet.

[myenhdl]

cnet is full of drop outs that think they know stuff but don't.

[kasrhp]

I don't ignore Cnet, at last they publish wrong information. That's something that makes me sick of Cnet.

Everything is shit but iPod.
A pmp is lighter than the iTouch? It's cheap!
A pmp has more functions than it? The functions of that pmp aren't needed and useless!
The UI is similar to the iTouch's one? Then it's copied!

Cnet criticizes everything that is (nearly) better than any iPod. They compare pmps with the iTouch and only list what is worse.

That's the reason why I CAN'T ignore Cnet.

Ignore the problem, maybe it will go away? They get money from people visiting site

[ItaloDancer]

Well, Jasmine France (mp3 editor for CNET) is definately not an Apple-fan.
Unfortunately the review was done by Donald Bell - who is more like an Apple fanboy (although he likes to talk about how he loves his Zune all the time).
I've yet to listen to their podcast of this week though.

[da1writer]

Well, Jasmine France (mp3 editor for CNET) is definately not an Apple-fan.
Unfortunately the review was done by Donald Bell - who is more like an Apple fanboy (although he likes to talk about how he loves his Zune all the time).
I've yet to listen to their podcast of this week though.
I agree, it's very surprising that Jasmine wasn't tossed the S9 for a review, she loved the Cowon D2! Donald Bell is more of a Ipod and Zune guy... a person who like to be told what he can and cannot do type of person I guess.
Jasmine is into tons of different mp3 players and I actually like her mp3 reviews better than others on that site.

[OnYourMark]

Actually, the video makes me want to get the S9 even more. The reviewer will say what he will, but the S9 looked great!

[ItaloDancer]

I've listened to the podcast last night and yeah well... Jasmine just talked along with Donald -- not having seen the device in real life herself. I'm sure she would have written a more favorable review. It is irritating to hear Donald basically say that an mp3 player should do everything that an iPod does... while barely talking about everything the device does, what the iPod doesn't...
He says it has the best audio and video quality... but that doesn't seem to matter all that much, just cause he nearly ripped the play button off after pulling it for five minutes. Oh well.

[ilh]

Yea, it's primary focus is as a music player, but playing music apparently doesn't matter too much...wtf.

[LifeIsGood]

Test drive for sound quality (with Sennheiser HD555) - Cowon S9 vs Samsung YP-P2 vs Sony NWZ 828k vs Apple Touch - read here (http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39156)

[Doc]

[no]http://reviews.cnet.com/portable-video-players-pvps/cowon-s9-16gb/4505-6499_7-33450412.html?tag=box4505 (http://reviews.cnet.com/portable-video-players-pvps/cowon-s9-16gb/4505-6499_7-33450412.html?tag=box4505)

As allways Cnet must be smoking bad weed when making Cowon reviews!![cursing]

[darrellfjohnson]

I kind of agree about the weight thing though. One thing I loved (out of many, believe me) about my old M3 was that it was solid. It was metal, and it felt like it could take a beating. And it did. I used it during work when I worked in a factory and I dropped it on a concrete floor at least 5 times, and every time it had no issue.

I would have loved for the S9 to be made out of solid metal like that, but I guess we can't have everything...

[ilh]

I dropped my S9 yesterday...not a scratch.

[waxer]

Ive dropped mine twice. Once onto a steel bar. Also not a scratch. You know what they say though. The bigger you are...........

[daver]

just a question, is the screen tempered glass or some other material? i read somewhere that it's tempered glass, but the author wasn't too sure about it. thanks!

[Waveblade]

Not sure but it won't scratch even against keys and stuff

[Killbom]

i'we red thats it's sposed to be tempered glass

[Uphaillife]

it's tempered glass. :P

[Dalmane98]

just a question, is the screen tempered glass or some other material? i read somewhere that it's tempered glass, but the author wasn't too sure about it. thanks!

Anti-Scratch (http://www.cowonglobal.com/product_wide/COWONS9/images/cowon_S9/overvw/overvw_010.jpg) Tempered Glass...

Read it for yourself.

[daver]

holy shnikes, i can't believe i missed that when i was perusing Cowon's website.

thanks for the link!

[LifeIsGood]

daver here is a link (if you dont see it before) about testing surface of Cowon S9 (video) Scratch test (http://blog.naver.com/zepirose1999)

[daver]

daver here is a link (if you dont see it before) about testing surface of Cowon S9 (video) Scratch test (http://blog.naver.com/zepirose1999)

ooooookay, i could use an upper right about now.

i know i cringed several times during that video (thanks for the link btw!).
i also soiled myself twice: once when i saw the box cutter in teh picture, and another when said box cutter made first contact with the S9's screen. i have several friends who have iPhones/iPods with more nicks on their faces than Michael Jackson (not to say his music is bad though!)

i wish that review/whatever page it was could be translated into english. you know that a person goes into great depths when they go through a stress test like that. it would be interesting to hear what that individual has to say (although it may be reversely biased compared to CNET).

[Juxtah]

Well after a round trip to Amsterdam the S9 spent most of the time in my backpack with my keys, change and a wet towel, it still works perfectly and not a scratch.

[kasrhp]

Just wanted to let you guys know. I posted some comments for the user reviews on cnets website simply saying a couple of positive things about the s9. I said that since they compared the s9 to the touch, i will give a couple of comparisons between the 2 also. Went through a cpl of the usuals. Said that it is by no means cheap hardware, just lightweight. Said some cons like no wi fi(compared to the touch). But overall basically said if you are not looking for a bunch of "extras," this is one of the best players you can get. Well, I guess they did not like me being so negative with the touch and they deleted my post. I was the first one to post a review on their site. I just got tired of no user reviews and their flawed review of the player on it. I just thought it was funny and you folks would get a kick out of it.

[Muskstick]

Just wanted to let you guys know. I posted some comments for the user reviews on cnets website simply saying a couple of positive things about the s9. I said that since they compared the s9 to the touch, i will give a couple of comparisons between the 2 also. Went through a cpl of the usuals. Said that it is by no means cheap hardware, just lightweight. Said some cons like no wi fi(compared to the touch). But overall basically said if you are not looking for a bunch of "extras," this is one of the best players you can get. Well, I guess they did not like me being so negative with the touch and they deleted my post. I was the first one to post a review on their site. I just got tired of no user reviews and their flawed review of the player on it. I just thought it was funny and you folks would get a kick out of it.

Thats why I get my reviews from sites like this where people aren't being paid to make comments. I don't read cnet reviews, or at least don't believe them when I do and I've stopped reading Gizmodo as well because im sick of them bashing anything that could threaten their precious Apple paychecks.

[kolonje]

Chip.de now has tested the S9:
http://www.chip.de/artikel/Cowon-S9-Curve-MP3-Player-Test_35179650.html
short(sorry if my english is not that good):
pros and cons(equal cnet's review)
+Touchscreen
+file format support
+long battery life

-lack of WiFi
-feels flimsy

they do also like the iTouch better, once again. i still can not understand what's so bad about the S9 beeing built of plastic. in my view it does NOT feel flimsy. and i'm still not of the opinion one needs WiFi in every portable device

[gorgi]

Yeah, somehow I dont trust chip.de anymore.
They rated the iTouchs soundquality 94% and the D2s about 91%
And gues why? Because it has a low output.
Yeah folks they claim that the probably most powerful Mp3-player is too quiet.
They rate the itouchs mobility 97% and the D2s 91%. I donÄt think they even know that the D2 has more battery life to it which makes it more of a mobile device.
Signal-to-noise ratio and distortion factors are being tested in every cowon review. Now look what? Guess who steps out of line? Yes the iTouch. They don't even mention that it's been tested in a labour or something. They just say it sounds great and has a lot of bass. Forget it. To each and everyone of you: The iPod Touch does not have a lot of bass. Its not even tingling my ears.
I can't stand those fanboys. I mean I probably would have bought an iTouch. But it DOES NOT sound better than any Cowon product.
I even emailed chip.de to do another test on the D2 because they probably missed that it has an output of 74mW and that it surely will be loud enough. I never dared cross volume-level 30

Anyway:
Did anyone already do a S/N ratio and distortion factor test?

[burre]

Pardon my english:
Just a theory/thought, I am a product developer, although in a completely different field, but when making new products, it is sometimes a good idea to consider being able to expand on a product using the same tools for plastic molds etc.(they are very expensive) The way the S9 i reviewed as feeling ligth, I don't think it would give that impression if its casing was filled to the brim with elctronics, etc. Could it be that there are empty areas inside it, to give room for future planned upgrades, or new models? Like bigger flash drive, DAB-module, upgrade of battery, or other things? [rolleyes] My guess is that there will be upgraded S9's, and they will not feel light. (Not that this is enough to keep me from getting one now.)

[MarceL1819]

Yeah, somehow I dont trust chip.de anymore.
They rated the iTouchs soundquality 94% and the D2s about 91%
And gues why? Because it has a low output.
Yeah folks they claim that the probably most powerful Mp3-player is too quiet.
They rate the itouchs mobility 97% and the D2s 91%. I donÄt think they even know that the D2 has more battery life to it which makes it more of a mobile device.
Signal-to-noise ratio and distortion factors are being tested in every cowon review. Now look what? Guess who steps out of line? Yes the iTouch. They don't even mention that it's been tested in a labour or something. They just say it sounds great and has a lot of bass. Forget it. To each and everyone of you: The iPod Touch does not have a lot of bass. Its not even tingling my ears.
I can't stand those fanboys. I mean I probably would have bought an iTouch. But it DOES NOT sound better than any Cowon product.
I even emailed chip.de to do another test on the D2 because they probably missed that it has an output of 74mW and that it surely will be loud enough. I never dared cross volume-level 30

Anyway:
Did anyone already do a S/N ratio and distortion factor test?
to answer your question ..no^^

But I totally aggree with you.. chip.de sucks..
when I first read the test about the cowon s9 and the ipod touch I really had to laugh..I tested both and every cowon player sounds better than any fu**in ipod .. and for this I don't have to do a S/N ratio and distortion factor test lol
The ipod has a bad bass and there is no detail in the music= sound quality sucks considering the high price..

-lack of WiFi
-feels flimsy

they gotta be kidding.. it feels fantastic and not cheap or something...
and to be honest..why does a mp3player have to have WiFi?
The S9 can do everything a good mp3player should do..

That made me so angry that I had to make a comment on the s9/itouch comparison on chip.de [rofl]

bye

[EddieE]

I don't get why people think media players need wifi either, I guess ipod did it so now it's a good thing to do.

Same way, I don't want my mobile phone to be a media player - my E71 plays videos and mp3s but I've never put any on it (except for one for my ringtone and one for my alarm) - I didn't buy it to be a sub-standard DAP - I bought it to integrate web browsing and email to my phone.

Both sides of this cross-over fashion irritate me. I don't want to end up paying over the odds for a DAP because manufacturers decide to bow to brain dead reviewers and put wifi in all their DAPs.

For a media player - I want it to play music and videos to a high degree of quality. Running other kinds of media like text files and pdfs, radio and DAB is fine too, as it all fits together - this is a device to run your electronic media on the go.

Wifi and email fit logically on a smart phone; they are evolutions of communication, so should be bundled together with other forms of communication, such as telephone calls and text messages. Things like calenders and apps fit on phones well too, making the phone a virtual office.

I don't want some kind of gimmicky "jack of all trades" device whose battery won't last a day because the manufacturer decides every single thing you might want to do must be on one device. It's a bad direction for gadgets to go in, and I don't get why so many reviewers don't get that.

[Nirvana1000]

I just got my S9 today.The sound quality is outstanding!I could never make my M Audio Q40's sound like this with my iPod.At least without an amp.It's light,just like any cell phone.So F'N what!The screen is gorgeous.Beautiful brilliant colours.I just converted Iron Man for the screen size in 15 minutes.And it looks fantastic with a resize function to get rid of those black bars.It's Cowon's best effort to date!I think one reviewer said it best.If you want internet access,great apps and fun games get the iTouch.If you want a pure audiophile sound with a gorgeous video screen,then get the S9!Apple may have the best navigation firmware.But they will never beat Cowon in Sound Quality!:jamming:

[Starsky5000]

Is the sound quality of the S9 better than the D2+?

[Uphaillife]

they're most likely the same. anyways what difference does it make if D2+ happens to be SLIGHTLY better.

i think they're the same.

[bwonedotcom]

Here is the link for Part 2 of my review and my dedicated Cowon S9 page

http://bwone.com/cowon-s9/
YouTube - Cowon S9 Review Part 2 - BWOne.com

[4DThinker]

I'm not much for making videos, but in the interest of self-promotion here are the links to my review of the S9 and a showdown between the S9, Samsung P3, and iriver SPINN.

S9 (http://4dthinker.blogspot.com/2008/12/cowon-s9-review.html).
Showdown (http://4dthinker.blogspot.com/2009/05/showdown-cowon-s9-vs-samsung-p3-vs.html).

[DAPmagic]

It's light,just like any cell phone.So F'N what!

Exactly.

It seems that some people equate light with cheap. That's not always true. Anyway, I don't need to feel like I'm walking around with a brick in my purse. [laugh]

[Dynamite Shikoku]

yeah when my friends held my S9 they all said "wait what? no way" They all thought it was cheap too until i showed them what it was able to do and the beautiful screen. They are saving up for 32GB S9's to replace their iTouch's. Though one of them is still sticking with getting a Zune HD (which was what i wanted before researching the S9). He'll come to the light :evil: